The governor is calling for all of the members of Maine's charter school commission to resign because LePage thinks the commissioners are intimidated by special interests and teachers unions.

"For the good of the kids of the state of Maine, please go away. We don’t need you. We need some people who've got backbones," said LePage.

On Tuesday, the commission rejected four out of five charter school proposals.

The commission chair told News 8 the proposals simply weren't viable, but the governor said special interests and union brass influenced the commission.

"They scared them. That's what they did. They intimidated them. Well, I’ll tell you something. If you've got a job and you're going to be intimidated, give it up and we'll get somebody that can do the job," LePage said.

"There was nothing that was done (Tuesday) that we had any pressure from anyone to do," said Charter Commission Chairman Jana LaPoint.

LaPoint defended her board, saying green-lighting four charter schools in one year is pretty good work.

"We have probably one of the highest caliber commissions that you can find in this entire state that have volunteers doing their work and all for the betterment of the children of the state of Maine. We're not going to work any faster than we have been," LaPoint said.

LaPoint said the four rejected applicants didn’t have solid plans to manage or fund their schools, but the governor said the applicants deserve more than just a rejection.

"Maybe if you sat down and talked to them, say, 'Well, you didn’t complete everything we wanted. You're missing this, this, this and this.' They could go back and work on the proposal and maybe they (will) come back with a better product," LePage said.

"You could always do that. I mean, you could go on and on and on with an application forever, but that's not the process," LaPoint said.

LePage also painted Maine schools as top-heavy with too many administrators.

He is taking aim at so-called "double-dippers" -- public employees who have retired from one job and collect a pension while drawing a second salary from a new job.

The process is legal and widespread among all parts of the public sector, but LePage said it prevents fresh blood and new ideas from coming into Maine classrooms.